


strange people in a junkyard

by bluesargayent



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer, Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Crack, Gen, Short, probably not worth a read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesargayent/pseuds/bluesargayent
Summary: Cinder visits the junkyard in search of a spare part, not a dwarf.





	strange people in a junkyard

Sometimes when Cinder needed a part she didn’t immediately have on hand, she would drag Iko down to the junkyard with her and poke around. It wasn’t the most convenient method, but it was certainly the least expensive one, which was important to Cinder.

Tonight she and Iko had split up slightly on their hunt for a salvageable screen she could use to replace her chipped portscreen. She knew it was unlikely she would find one unscathed in the mess, but she had seen it happen before and she knew Adri would never give her the money to order a new one.

Cinder had tracked down a pile that contained other portscreen parts and was focussed on digging through the junk. It was getting late and she knew she would have no chance of spotting a screen in the dark so she was slightly more rushed than normal. Which meant she was being slightly less careful as well.

When she moved a rather heavy box to the side, Cinder could only watch out of the corner of her eye as it toppled over, resulting in a large crash. She cringed when she saw the broken plastic of her missing screen. Perfect.

“Perfect.”

For a moment, Cinder thought she accidentally said it aloud. Then she realized the noise came from below her.

She looked down to see- something- crawling out of the junk. She jumped back in shock and grabbed a nearby piece of plastic to defend herself with if need be.

“It’s not like I was trying to sleep in or anything.” As the being stood up, Cinder got a closer view. It looked vaguely like a person, if a person were three feet tall and covered in hair. The creature had a face but his mouth moved oddly when he talked. His beard was completely gray and the rest of his hair looked on its way to match it. 

“What are you?” 

“First of all, rude. My name is Mulch Diggums and you just interrupted my nap.”

Cinder gaped for a few moments before she could figure out what to say. “There’s a homeless center a few miles south.”

“I’m not homeless.”

Cinder looked around. “You live in a junkyard?”

“Nah, I’m just visiting. Well, hiding out would be more accurate.” The creature- Mulch scanned the lot.

“Hiding from what?” She asked suspiciously.

He squinted at before answering. “I’m only telling you this because you’re over five feet tall, but I may have gotten in a little bit of trouble stealing things from people a little shorter than you and I’m too old to be faking my own death again.”

Cinder put a protective hand over her toolbelt. “So you’re hiding from the police?”

“Not your police, a different police.”

“Okay.”

They stared at each other for quite a while. Eventually Mulch pulled a piece of clear biodegradable plastic out of the pile and held it out to her. “This is what you’re looking for, right?”

Without breaking eye contact, Cinder slowly grabbed it from the strange man. “Thanks.”

He started laughing. Scared, she scrambled backwards. She could still hear the wanted criminal giggling manically as she grabbed Iko and ran away.

Needless to say, Cinder did not go back to that junkyard for quite some time.


End file.
